Expression Update Not Saving

[ChrisBenJohnson]

When I am building long Flows with long expressions I find I run into an issue where, when I amend an expression, clicking the Update button doesn;t save the changes. I can see this by immediately hovering over the expression block and the tooltip confirms the changes haven't saved.

This only seems to become an issue when Flows grow to a particular size (not sure what the threshold is though).

This can be very confusing when testing a change and seeing no difference. Now I always double check changes to expressions. The workaround I have found is to make my changes, copy the entire expression, delete all text in the expression and paste it back in. This has a 100% success rate (so far!)

For info, I am using Chrome.

[AylardJ]

I don't see this issue nearly as often as I used to - at first, it seemed to be a roll of the dice whether a formula would update when I modified it. But now most of the time it does update. Unfortunately, it still isn't 100% of the time, so I always check after updating a formula to see whether the changes stuck. I think my corporate bandwidth and speed have improved since my earlier days of Power Automate development, but hopefully Microsoft has also been doing some improvement behind the scenes. Until it is 100% reliable, though - as it absolutely should be - they still have more work to do, in my opinion.

[MarconettiMarco]

Hello @ChrisBenJohnson ,

after updating the expression and before clicking the “update” button, you have click outside from the expression bar (for instance click in the gray section), then click “update”.

Otherwise please enable the Power Automate experimental features, with which the bug is not occurring.

BR,

Marco 

[james_hathaway]

This is incredibly annoying, and STILL a MAJOR BUG after first being reported over 2 AND A HALF YEARS AGO!

This is a tool that manipulated DATA using FORMULAS.

I have this issue with both simple and complex formulas.

WEhat also happens sometimes is that you amend the Formula, confirm that it has changed by hovering over it, and then save the Flow.

The Flow then fails - and when I investigate, the Formula has reverted to what it was before I edited it - despite the formula being correct, and Flow actually confirming the Save (which is obviously a lie, as it hasn't actually saved anything).

I also have other instances of Flow actually amending my formulas without my knowledge - this happens a lot with the "base64ToBinary" function. - I put it into the Flow to convert the FileContent, the flow runs ok for a few days, and then fails randomly. When I Investigate why it has failed, the "base64ToBinary" has mysteriously vanished, and the Flow is creating the file using Base64 content, which obviously results in a file that you can't open.

Seriously - Flow actually REMOVES the formula that I put in there, all on its own!

What is the point if the Tool simply decides to ignore your FORMULA changes, and/or simply removes them?

I am fed up of these BASIC USABILITY bugs in the Power Automate Platform - how on earth can we actually use it in production environments or live systems when it is so unreliable?

Please Microsoft - FIX THESE BUGS!

[balv]

Really annoying, it still happing until THIS TIME 7/2023!!!

[Enzo7C4]

Same issue, 11/2023

[johnnykalsi]

This issue is still happening and has been happening for 1 year. its fustrating that I need to delete the action and re-add it becuase PA cant save updates to the formula.

Microsoft - FIX THIS!!!

[GiMoZH]

This has been an ongoing issue since at least 3 years. It's not only annoying, but it's a source of errors! In another thread they recommend to hold the "update" button for 3 seconds, which is not an easy thing using the mouse. I will try that, but please, Microsoft, get this fixed. Thank you.

[rbunge]

The one consistent workaround I have found (and __completely__ agree that there should be no reason to NEED such a workaround -- c'mon Microsoft!) is to hit End key (to get to end of the expression line), then click on Expression (see below, next to Dynamic Content), and THEN click Update. I've not had the issue since I began spending these extra few seconds.

[AndreaHB]

Yes! That seems to work! Thank you, this was driving me insane!

[Alex4579]

This is an absolute joke. HOW... HOOOOWWWWW is this still an issue. Seems to "function" just as every other MSFT products - poorly and with constant headache. Get it together, seriously...